Dear Patty, > ---------- > Von: Patty and Charlie[SMTP:pandcbrown@bwn.net] > Gesendet: Dienstag, 11. Januar 2000 10:07 > An: SWITZERLAND-L@rootsweb.com > Betreff: [SWITZ] Straubenzell Question > > I now know for sure that my ancestors (great-great grandfather and > great-great-great-grandfather) held citizenship in Straubenzell. I have > a couple questions about that: > > 1. It is my understanding that Straubenzell no longer exists but that > the area which used to be Straubenzell is now the western part of the > city of St. Gallen - am I correct about that? > It still exists ;-) - just not as an independent community : you're correct, since 1918 it is part of the city of St.Gallen. > 2. What was Straubenzell - a city? a canton? > A small community - you wouldn't integrate a canton (compare this to a state in the USA) into a city, would you ? > 3. For my g-g-g-grandfather to have held citizenship in Straubenzell, > wouldn't some ancestor have had to have lived in that area originally to > have initially established that citizenship? > True - the family would have been living in the area for some time. > I know that my g-g-grandfather was born in Rorschach (1836) and have > been fortunate enough to find his baptismal record, a report card for > his attendance at a school in Rorschach, and a record of him depositing > his Heimatschein in Rheineck for a few years prior to emigrating to the > US. > > I am now trying to determine where my g-g-g-grandfather was born > (1801). I do understand that where he holds citizenship may be totally > unrelated to where he lived. > True - not as much then as nowadays - but still quite true then. > However, several of the documents I have > say "von Bruggen" on them. I have been told that Bruggen could have > been used interchangeably with Straubenzell, thus this is just an > indication of his citizenship in Straubenzell. Could it also be an > indication that he moved to Rorschach from Bruggen, and therefore > Bruggen church records might be a good place to look for his baptismal > records? > Bruggen was a village near the village of Straubenzell; together with other villages it formed the community of Straubenzell. Consequently there was no citizenship of Bruggen - these people would have been citizens of Straubenzell - at least officially; I wouldn't be surprised at all, however, if "von Bruggen" was occasionally used instead of "von Straubenzell" - indicating that the family, whilst citizens of Straubenzell, for the insider would be a Bruggen family (either of long tradition, or just living there) - especially as Bruggen was in fact larger than Straubenzell, and the church was in Bruggen ;-). So the Bruggen church records (baptismal records dating back to 1774 only - marriages to 1637) might be a good thing to check (filmed !). > Thanks in advance for any information, suggestions! Patty in Colorado, > USA > Good luck with your further research, and best regards - Wolf ---------------------- Wolf W. Seelentag, PhD, e-mail : wolf@swissmail.com Reherstr. 19, CH - 9016 St. Gallen, Switzerland Tel (home) : +41-71-2885121 Fax : +49-89-2443-91987 Tel (work) : +41-71-4942233